9 Learning by Doing

A soft and rhythmic sound woke up Nemu.

'Oh, no. It's raining.' Nemu thought.

Small raindrops ran down the window pane. Glass was something Nemu still had to get used to. Transparent but solid material? For the inhabitants of Tempest, this was nothing special anymore, but for Nemu it seemed like a miracle. Even the small goblin villages he saw from afar haven't had something like that. He never liked the rain, not that slimes were affected by it, but it always gave him a bad mood. In the beginning of his journey he sometimes enjoyed it because it gave him safety. He liked jumping through the puddles but after a while, it became boring. Remembering back, he must have looked really weird. What was left was just a dark sky and mud everywhere. So what should he do today? His initial plan was to go outside again, while he was still ready to do that, his experience showed him that most races stayed inside while it was raining. So what to do? What to do?

'The dragon!' He then thought. He must be somewhere around. And, after Nemu used his magic senses, he immediately found out where the dragon currently was. Actually, he was in this building! What a convenient surprise. Then Nemu remembered something. Yesterday Kaijin explained to him what the reason for the big building was. It was built for important guests and meetings. Basically like a headquarter for Tempest. And it was built for a way bigger town. Rimuru was wise. He knew that the building in the middle of the town must be something special. So he decided to build it big enough for hundreds of guests. With the growing status of the town they will also have more important guests and Nemu will probably lose his room but for now there are more than enough rooms. Coming back to the dragon, all very important persons in Tempest had their own room, Kaijin explained to Nemu yesterday. Nemu blushed a little, obviously invisible because he was already red. Was he important?

But then, he shook his head. Nemu knew that Rimuru wanted to do him a favor and he wasn't planning on exploiting his generosity. Soon, he will move out. But that's for another day. First, he must decide what he wants to do today. He remembered that Guide explained to him what books are. And even that he is able to read them. It was a good day for something like that, he thought. Looking at the shelf in his room he saw a lot of them. When he jumped near the shelf, something weird happened to his mind. The signs on the spine of the book... They formed words in his mind.

[That's one of my functions as a skill. You're able to read and write most of the known languages. The knowledge is directly transferred to your brain.] Guide said, in his usual, almost mechanical, voice.

'Oh, that's so cool' Nemu happily, he just woke up and learned something amazing again! 'Guide, can you recommend me one of these books to me?'

[Negative. This isn... Yes, there are several books about flora and fauna in the Great Jura Forest. You might read them, because knowledge can save you outside of Tempest.]

Nemu found that very convenient, but what just happened with Guide? He never did that before. Is he also able to learn? But well, he only had the skill for two days, so I might find out something unexpected later. Still excited, he decided to drop that topic for now. The books in front of him were more interesting.

'So which one should I read?' Nemu asked.

Surprisingly, some of the books began to glow. Nemu knew that he could only see it because of his magical perception and that Guide somehow marked them.

[The knowledge about the Great Jura Forest is very limited. Almost all knowledge is given to the next generation verbally. Contrary to humans, dwarfs and elves, most monsters and natural inhabitants of the forest don't know how useful the preservation of knowledge in the form of books is. So even if there are books, they are mostly superficial. Since Tempest is trading with different nations they tried to change that. And they buy every book they can find. Nevertheless, most races do not know much about the forest and therefore most of the flora and fauna is still unknown or never documented.] Guide patiently explained.

'Oh, good thing I already have them in my room!' He thought. Nemu would later find out that this wasn't so much of a coincidence as he currently thought.

He scanned the books on the shelf with his magic senses. First of all he would start with the books Guide has recommended him. Nemu was well aware that his journey was dangerous. He was curious and loved adventures, but he also knew that there was a reason most red slimes hide most of their life. The forest was dangerous. And he was reckless. But for him, it was worth it. The chance he was given to him now was something he wouldn't let slip. Learning by doing was what he did most of his life but that wasn't the only way to explore new things he just found out. The idea of information on paper, rather alien for him.

Before starting reading, Nemu looked outside of the window for a while. He had a sense for weather changes. If this was a slime ability or just his experience, he didn't know. But what he knew was that the weather won't change anytime soon. Besides being cloudy outside and no sun insight he knew that it was still early in the morning. Outside of his room there were noises and light steps, but it wasnt so much busy as the day before after he woke up. So he didn't sleep this long today.

And so, he finally decided what to do with the rainy day. He will spend the morning with books and read some of them. Actually, he didn't know yet how long reading even takes and looking at some of the large books he might spend the entire morning with only one of them. But after that, he will definitely look for the dragon!

Fortunately for him, Guide had another interesting ability. He saved everything Nemu read. It wasn't like he took pictures of every page, but after reading he had all the information in his brain. Actually, his cells function like a brain. Because, well, he didn't have a brain. But sadly there weren't any books about slime anatomy so he decided that he has a brain for now. But there was some information about slimes. How they live, how long they live and some other interesting facts. What was most interesting was that slimes can't live outside of the Jura forest. The reason for that was the small amount of magicules. He heard about this before, another red slime who also left his cave sometimes told him that if he moves in the opposite direction of the forest hearts, he always feels weaker. Nemu was sad. So he can't leave the forest ever?

[Answer. No, after you got your name, your magicules count and production grow to such an extent that you always produce more than enough magicules for yourself. Meaning, you can live and travel everywhere without feeling any weaker.] Guide explained.

Now, Nemu was about to jump in happiness. And he did. He could actually make his dream true and go wherever he wants. For a second he felt more disappointed than ever before and besides being thankful for Guide before, he decided that he will thank Rimuru and Raphael later. Without Guide, everything would have been a lot harder for Nemu. Was it the same for Rimuru and Raphael? He thought for a second.

[…]

The next few hours were surprisingly fruitful. His worries that it would take some time to read all the books was unnecessary. Some of the books were thick but Nemu quickly learned why. The paper. Its thick and even a book that was three times larger than another could have less sites. Nemu didn't think about that before he started reading. The production of books wasn't something that could have been easily done. He noticed the differences in quality. The elfish books were the best, the sites were thin and there were a lot of information. The human books had slightly lower quality with thicker sites, but the dwarf books were the worst. The sites were thick and the information, nicely said, rather less useful. Guide told him that he can produce books by himself. But he had to absorb paper first. He will definitely do that later and test out the quality!

Only after 3 hours he was already done. He read all the books, Guide had recommended to him. And he learned a lot. Even some maps were in the books, so he now had quite some knowledge about the Jura Forest. But it wasn't very detailed. If he compares the maps with the information he had gathered himself, they were barely helpful. However, now he finally had an idea of how big the forest is. And it was huge. Larger than he would have ever imagined. Even his way to Tempest would have taken him weeks. And that's only if he had used the streets. He had a lot of respect for the orcs now. They built the roads and the tempo they had was amazing. The information about the monster was kinda less useful for him. Because, obviously, they didnt state out which monster would attack slimes. But he learned a lot about their abilities. In his experience, he was mostly ignored by the mindless monsters, but he was pretty sure that there are other monsters that wouldn't just ignore him. Back to learning by doing it should be.

And now, he would meet the dra...

'Huh?' He thought after he activated his magic senses. There was another incredibly powerful aura. And... were they moving towards him? He was so much investigated in his books that he didn't even realize. And then, they were in front of his room.

*Knock* *Knock*